Rob Chrisman News Today

A correction to yesterday’s Commentary regarding the next holiday (Memorial Day) being two months out. Several emailed that Memorial Day is actually three months away! Overheard here in Texas the hallways at the TMBA Secondary Conference: “So if we don’t let athletes bet on games that they have the ability to influence, why do we allow Congress to invest in companies they regulate?” Here at the conference, the wise use of technology is definitely an important topic (t...

“Alexa, where’s my damn package?” (Page down 3-4 times to the video.) Life is full of surprises, good and bad. Rates aren’t a surprise… The U.S. Federal Reserve can only do so much about inflation. Geo-politics are a big deal, of course, and there is nothing our Fed, tasked with maintaining economic stability in this country, can do about those. Vendors and lenders are doing what they can, cutting over-capacity and expenses. Capital markets staffs everywhere ar...

Each week we’ll run through the sublime, the trivial and profound issues, decisions and goings on that strike us as Hits or Misses. You can join in, too, by emailing

“What do hospital gowns and insurance policies have in common? You’re never covered as much as you think you are.” Although loan officers are not insurance experts, they are seeing the escalating cost of homeowner’s insurance impact affordability. (Last Friday’s TMC show focused on why insurance costs are rising.) Insuring homes is not the only issue, however. The average bill for the repair of an American vehicle is $4,437, and for an electric vehicle that is ...

Attention in the hallways in the early going at the IMB Conference in New Orleans is varied. LinkedIn traffic seems to have picked up for IMB companies like Draper and Kramer and Atlantic Bay, but that is hardly a scientific measure of companies being bought, buying, or exiting the business. (As always, direct questions to company representatives.) Credit costs and trigger leads are a big item; this Wednesday’s L1 Mortgage Matters session at 2PM ET features John Fleming, of John Fleming L...

Good example of editorial page with civil discourse

Many observers of the body politic seem to believe that the answer to our current divisiveness is to pursue moderation, and, in particular, to adopt an attitude toward compromise going

“Affordable” means many things. There are residential lending industry jokes about making a loan on anything with axles or a license plate. (Like “don’t.”) Being “permanently affixed” is usually in the underwriting guidelines, which makes this story about someone having their driveway stolen very interesting. (In this clip a builder explains how the scam works.) There are plenty of trends in the builder world, one of which is “build for ren...

Our Federal Reserve doesn’t control events around the world, like a ship being stuck in the Suez Canal, or the current Red Sea geopolitical aggression, which can impact our inflation rate or how much money companies or individuals earn. The world changes. What was it like going to a concert 60 years ago? This will give you an idea. Concerts have become huge moneymakers. Along those lines, but in a different industry, the Financial Times reports that JPMorgan took almost a fifth of total U...

“What do you call James Bond having a bath? Bubble 07.” In different bond matters, mortgage rates will always be higher than Treasury rates, in part because of the prepayment risk in mortgages that doesn’t exist with Treasury bonds. With the drop in rates, sales management personnel at lenders are busy figuring out how best to remind the staff about EPO (early payoff) penalties levied by investors while at the same time working on ways to save money besides furloughing, cutt...